In Part 1, I began to lay out a case for reading the essays and sermons of C.S. Lewis. In Part 2, I provided an overview of my survey process and the people who supported me in this effort. Now, in Part 3, I will reveal the “top-ranked” shorter works of C.S. Lewis–at least as determined by this highly credible group of Lewis experts.
I have organized the responses into five tiers. This notion of grouping them into tiers was used because too many works secured the same vote count to enable a numeric ranking to be meaningful. For example, there are 7 which received 4 votes, and 18 which received 2 votes.
Ranked according to the total number of “votes” recorded (noted in parentheses), they are as follows:
Tier One – The Top Three
- The Weight of Glory (28)
- Meditation in a Toolshed (23)
- Learning in Wartime (21)
A special note is warranted here. These “top three” were “heads above” the rest. Lewis’ great sermon, “The Weight of Glory”, not only received the greatest number of votes–28 out of 30 responses–it was clearly the #1 favorite of most respondents. As I indicated above, 22 of the 30 replies included detail sufficient to discern the respondent’s “top three.” Of those 22, 14 ranked “The Weight of Glory” as their #1 choice. In my mind, this confirms that “The Weight of Glory” is far and away #1.
The #2 ranked writing, “Meditation in a Toolshed” was also a compelling choice. It received 23 total votes from the 30 respondents. Of those who revealed their “top three”, “Meditation” received 3 votes for #1 and, more importantly, it was also scored 6 votes for #2.
In much the same way, the #3 ranked writing, “Learning in Wartime” was a clear choice. It received 21 overall votes, including 2 votes for #1 and 5 votes for #2.
From there, the data support a specific writing’s candidacy for “top three” fell sharply. Still, there are seven others that warrant inclusion in a “Top Ten” List.
Tier Two – The Rest of the Top Ten
- Transposition (18)
- De Descriptione Temporum (16)
- The Inner Ring (16)
- Is Theology Poetry? (15)
- The Poison of Subjectivism (11)
- Funeral of a Great Myth (9)
- Man or Rabbit? (9)
Is it mere coincidence that my own “Top Ten” are these same ten (though not in precisely the same order)? Devon Brown, too . . . and Max McLean. Next time we are all together in the Eagle and Child pub, the first round is on me.
Tier Three – The Rest of the Top Twenty-Five
- On Stories (8)
- On the Reading of Old Books (8)
- Sometimes Fairy Tales May Say Best What’s to Be Said (8)
- Bluspels and Flananspheres (7)
- Myth Became Fact (6)
- Review of Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” (5)
- The Grand Miracle (5)
- The World’s Last Night (5)
- Bulverism (4)
- Christianity and Literature (4)
- God in the Dock (4)
- Living in the Atomic Age (4)
- Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism (4)
- On Three Ways of Writing for Children (4)
- Screwtape Proposes a Toast (4)
Tier Four – The Rest of the Top Fifty
- De Futilitate (3)
- Hamlet: The Prince or the Poem (3)
- It All Began With a Picture (3)
- Membership (3)
- Talking About Bicycles (3)
- The Efficacy of Prayer (3)
- What Are We to Make of Jesus Christ? (3)
- A Slip of the Tongue (2)
- Christian Apologetics (2)
- Christianity and Culture (2)
- Democratic Education (2)
- Equality (2)
- First and Second Things (2)
- Is Progress Possible (2)
- Language of Religion (2)
- Miracles (2)
- On Obstinacy in Belief (2)
- On Science Fiction (2)
- Religion and Rocketry (2)
- The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment (2)
- The Seeing Eye (2)
- The Sermon and the Lunch (2)
- The Trouble with “X” (2)
- Why I Am Not a Pacifist (2)
- Xmas and Christmas (2)
Tier Five – Others Receiving a Vote
- A Note on Jane Austin
- Before We Can Communicate
- Different Tastes in Literature
- High and Low Brows
- Historicism
- Horrid Red Things
- Image and Imagination
- Is English Doomed
- Lilies That Fester
- Meditation of the Third Commandment
- Modern Man and His Categories of Thought
- On Criticism
- On Ethics
- Priestesses in the Church
- Rejoinder to Dr. Pittinger
- Reply to Professor Haldane
- Sir Walter Scott
- The Alliterative Metre
- The Novels of Charles Williams
- Unreal Estates
- Vivisection
- We Have No ‘Right’ to Happiness
You might wonder why I would include in this posting those shorter writings that received only a single vote. Think of it this way: If you were to attend an upcoming C.S. Lewis event, and any one of these 30 people suggested that you would be well-served by reading “Yada, yada” by C.S. Lewis, that should be a compelling recommendation to do just that. It would be for me.
Other Observations:
Although there was remarkable consistency across the entire group as relates to the Top Three, and the Top Ten, there were unique opinions expressed. Alan Snyder led the way with three unique selections among his favorites. Those who had two unique selections include: Adam Barkman, Chrystal Hurd, David Jack, David Russell Mosley, and Michael Ward.One last point of interest . . . Since there were so many English Professors among the participants, I thought I might see meaningful differences between the English Profs and everyone else as relates to the selection of essays of a literature and literary nature. To my surprise, there was very little of that to be found.Several of these contributors submitted items that fell outside the scope of this survey. Because we are all looking for good recommendations, I share the following:
- The Apologist’s Evening Prayer (Peter Kreeft)
- Are Athletes Better than Scholars (Adam Barkman)
- Chapter 17 of Letters to Malcolm (Jerry Root)
- Hermione and the House of Paulina (Sarah Waters)
- Language and Human Nature (Steve Beebe)
- Footnote to All Prayers (Peter Kreeft)
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Next up: Part 4 – Best Collections of Shorter Writings
